Liu teeters toward a loss

The Obama administration is teetering toward losing a fierce battle with Senate Republicans over the long-stalled appointment of Goodwin Liu to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a nominee conservatives fear would drag the liberal-leaning court further to the left.

Democrats need seven Republicans to join them in supporting Liu to overcome a filibuster, but several key Republicans said Wednesday they would not support the 39-year-old law professor from the University of California, Berkley. And if just one more Republican says no, Liu will fail to break the filibuster.

Story Continued Below

Republicans John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mark Kirk of Illinois — all of whom helped Democrats confirm Jack McConnell to a Rhode Island district court earlier this month — said Wednesday they would not support Liu’s bid.

The other eight GOP senators who voted earlier this month to support McConnell did not offer a clear response on how they plan to vote on Liu.

Liu’s appointment has dragged on. He was put forth by the White House both this Congress and last.

McCain and Graham haven’t blocked any other nominees this year. They were two of the founding members of the Senate’s bipartisan Gang of 14 set up in 2005 to help clear George W. Bush’s nominees and avoid the so-called “nuclear option” of filibustering a president’s judicial slate.

McCain said Liu’s nomination is an “extraordinary circumstance,” pointing to tough testimony Liu gave during the confirmation process of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

At the time, Liu said Alito’s “record envisions an America where police may shoot and kill an unarmed boy to stop him from running away with a stolen purse … where a black man may be sentenced to death by an all-white jury for killing a white man.”

Graham went even further in criticizing Liu’s remarks.

“That to me showed an ideological superiority or disdain for conservative ideology that made him, in my view, an ideologue,” the South Carolina Republican said. “Basically, Mr. Liu went after Alito’s character and that people with a judicial philosophy like Judge Alito must want America to go backward. Well, I sure don’t want America to go backward so that’s why I’m voting ‘no.’ I don’t think he’s qualified. I think he’d make a helluva politician in that way but a lousy judge.”

Liu apologized in his own hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his remarks during Alito’s nomination.

Many Democrats, noting Liu’s young age and academic credentials, have charged that Republicans are interested in blocking Liu now to cut off a path to the Supreme Court before it can begin.

“I don’t think he’ll be confirmed,” Sen. John Cornyn a Republican from Texas said. “I think there is some sense that circuit court judges are different than district court judges and so you won’t find those divisions now that we have a circuit court judge, somebody who’s eligible for the Supreme Court.”

Even a Democrat, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, took to the Senate floor to offer a critique of Liu. Webb agreed to vote to overcome the filibuster, but not to support his nomination.

“Intellect in and of itself does not always give a person wisdom, nor does it guarantee good judgment, and the root word of judgment is, of course, judge,”Webb said. “And that is our duty today, to decide whether Professor Liu’s almost complete lack of practical legal experience, coupled with his history of intemperate, politically charged statements, allow us a measure of comfort and predictability as to whether he would be fair and balanced while sitting in one of the highest courts in the land.”